Reform groups to FCC: more TV content ratings, please!

Reform groups say they want the government to expand the scope and power of …

The Federal Communications Commissions' Notice of Inquiry on content blocking and filtering devices is done, with all comments and replies to comments filed. And judging from the latest statements, a key question is whether the FCC's required report to Congress on this matter will encourage lawmakers to expand the TV ratings systems used by the statutorily required V-Chip.

"The Commission should adopt rules designed to incentivize broadcasters to ensure the V-Chip will function effectively with multiple, independent ratings systems," wrote the Parents Television Council on the final day of the proceeding. "Given the inconsistencies, subjective nature and lack of transparency of the television industry’s guidelines, families should be free to choose a ratings system that comports with their own standards."

Ratings heaven

There are a lot of alternative ratings methods out there besides the one used in the V-Chip. And there are a lot of groups that want the government to "incentivize" the industry to add them. Here's a quick tutorial on the chip: All post-2000 manufactured TVs with screens 13 inches or bigger have to have them. Parents can program these sets to block content via the following ratings: TV-Y ("all children"); TV-Y7 ("older children"); TV-G ("general audience"); TV-PG ("parental guidance suggested"); TV-14 ("parents strongly cautioned"), and TV-M ("Mature").

The Children's Media Policy Coalition wants ads to be rated just like programs, "so that parents can block those that contain violent or sexual images or themes," the group told the FCC.

This system was set up by the Motion Picture Association of America, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. PTC argues that it doesn't work very well because TV stations often don't flash one or more of the four possible advisory content or "theme" labels during shows: V ("violence"); S ("sexual situations"); L ("strong coarse language"), or D ("intensely suggestive dialogue"). The group has its own ratings system, which "no broadcaster has yet volunteered to transmit," it complains.

But PTC's approval/disapproval list is only one of many. The Coalition for Independent Ratings boasts a veritable cornucopia of methods up on its website that it wants made more accessible. "The usefulness of these ratings systems to parents is greatly diminished if they are not able to access them when they are making their decision regarding what programs to block with the V-Chip," CIR wrote to the FCC last week.

It's easy to get lost in the forest of new ratings proposals, but the one that practically all the reform groups have glommed onto is a proposed extension of ratings categories to commercials. The Children's Media Policy Coalition wants ads to be rated just like programs, "so that parents can block those that contain violent or sexual images or themes," the group told the FCC.

CMPC includes the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association, among other groups. The coalition also wants ratings to include a "content descriptor" tagging commercials that push "adult-oriented" items "so that parents have the option of blocking ads for movies or video games that are intended for mature audiences, as well as alcoholic beverages and certain prescription drugs." Both PTC and CIR have endorsed this general idea.

The CMPC also wants to add another category to the V-Chip, "E/I," or "educational/informational" programming as it's called. "Allowing parents to use the V-Chip to affirmatively select good programming for their children," the group argues, "rather than just to block objectionable programming, would increase the V-Chip’s effectiveness as a parental control mechanism."

Limits of authority?

A lot of free market and civil liberties advocates have been pushing back on these proposals. Most argue that the market presently offers a wide variety of content raters and blockers for just about every possible platform, so why does the government need to get further involved?

"There has never been a time in our nation’s history when parents have had more tools and methods at their disposal to help them decide what constitutes acceptable media content in their homes and in the lives of their children," noted Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation in his comments on this proceeding.

PFF's filing is 148 pages long, but anyone leaning towards more regulation in this area should give the commentary a read. A key point is that when Congress passed the Child Safe Viewing Act in 2007—asking the FCC to advise the government on the state of content filtering devices—it authorized this inquiry and no more.

"Does the Commission recognize any boundaries to the oversight authority it asserts in the name of investigating 'advanced blocking technologies'?" Thierer asked. "It certainly should."

Indeed. But with Capitol Hill considering a bill that would ban the TV advertising of erectile dysfunction pills between 6am and 10pm, there's no telling what inspirations politicians will derive from the FCC's report, especially if it sympathetically outlines these proposals for expanding the V-Chips' scope. The agency has to submit its survey to Congress by August 29.

42 Reader Comments

"Allowing parents to use the V-Chip to affirmatively select good programming for their children," the group argues, "rather than just to block objectionable programming, would increase the V-Chip’s effectiveness as a parental control mechanism."

Wait, what? I'm as guilty of leaving my kids in front of the TV for a while as the next parent, but are you kidding me? If you're that concerned about kids only watching educational/informative programmes on TV, why not only allow them to watch TV when it's on?

Apparently there's a magical invention that's just hit the streets: a TV guide

I cant understand alot of these groups. All they seem to be trying to do is have the parent "tune-out" and let the kid run wild without them being responsible. I'm sorry but if you dont know what your 7 or 8 year old is watching on tv, then you are not a responsible parent. The v-chip is fine as it is. Online I can understand more since there isn't a schedule of events like on TV and even the most basic of searches might turn up porn.

And the banning of cialis or viagra commercials during the day WHEN THE KIDS ARE IN SCHOOL ANYWAY is just stupid. Those commercials are mildly suggestive at best and really the kids should be seeing "affection" between their parents anyway.

"There has never been a time in our nation’s history when parents have had more tools and methods at their disposal to help them decide what constitutes acceptable media content in their homes and in the lives of their children"

I can't say that I mind commercials being rated, as long as it's not government enforced. Movies, music and TV are voluntarily rated at the moment. The ESRB is also voluntary and with parenting in place, parents can use this information if they wish, to guide their children's viewing habits. It can't hurt to rate the commercials as well and then let the parents decide to use the information or not. I'm all for arming parents with additional information and tools to consume that information. If it helps them be better parents then great. Ultimately, the responsibility is with the parent though and I'm completely against the government regulating any sort of rating system for any of the media types. (movies, TV, commercials, games, print, books, music...)

One of the upsides I see to rating commercials is that, if you can choose their rating level separately, you can effectively put an ad blocker on your TV. I DVR 95% of all the TV I watch just to avoid the ads, it would be nice to watch a game or the Discovery channel without getting my eardrums popped by a 130db ad.

I had just read a survey a few weeks ago regarding the number of people using the V Chip and it was (shockingly /sarcasm) low! The added "expense" of this technology wasn't worth it as people tend to ignore it.

Personally, I'm still not happy with a group of old farts who dictate these ratings, especially when they're so damn inconsistent.

Oh well. Let them push whatever the hell they want. It's not like they're going to be used anyway.

I'd like a system to block commercials that annoy me. They would be rated TV-blah blah blah.

I can't imagine advertisers being OK with anyone being able to block any ads. They already have their panties in a wad about DVRs being able to fast forward through them. Then again, this is for the children, and nobody wants to look like they don't like children.

How many parents actually set up their televisions to block content. Hell, most parents in the US seem to have no idea what V-chip is anyway. And no, I'm not talking about the typical Arsian, but Joe Six-pack.

ZeroZanzibar beat me to making this point (by a good bit, too) but I was on a another forum and some of the parents were singing the old "things are different today" song, and I mentioned the V-chip. I got the reply "I don't even know if my TV has one." (Yes, if your television was made after 2000, and sold in America, it has a v-chip.)

Originally posted by Kressilac:I can't say that I mind commercials being rated, as long as it's not government enforced. Movies, music and TV are voluntarily rated at the moment.

I agree, but I have my doubts it would work. Advertisers WANT kids whining and perstering their parents over the advertised products, and they want to get their future customers young.

As for ED commercials... they are a lot more innocent and less gratuitious than almost anything else on the air. Although I supposed having your 6 year old look up at you and say, "Daddy, what's ED?" could be disturbing.

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I'm just posting here to say the picture associated with this article is brilliant.

I've never actually seen someone using the v-chip on their TV. And I'm an A/V installer and general electronics guru, so everyone I know asks me for electronics-related advice. That said, any means the industry is capable of offering for tagging and/or filtering content is significant and could be incredibly useful. Especially if it gets rid of Smilin' Bob.

I just want commercials rated like shows... show them whenever, but have the V-Chip block them. Nothing like watching a baseball game with my daughter and having a commercial for the movie "Drag Me To Hell" scare the crap out of her.

Making it illegal to boost the volume on commercials would be fine by me too

I don't see why people think this is a bad idea? I mean, I can't count the number of times I was wondering why a Victoria Secret or Enzyte commercial (okay, not that bad since innuendo is lost on most kids) is shown on Cartoon Network. Not to mention things I watch as an adult (like sports games, your average sitcom) I don't want to worry about a risque commercial or something coming on if my kids are in the room. At one time all commercials maintained a G or all audiences standard, that has changed in the past 10 years and since sex and violence sells marketing agencies continue to push the envelope with no mind for what time slot or channel its on as long as its a cheap time slot.

The recent BK ad is a good example, while yes it is all in good humor..it doesn't mean I want my 8 year old daughter doing a booty dance thinking its the square pants dance or something or that its perfectly innocent. I got enough working against me trying to keep her off the pole as Chris Rock would put it.

Don't these people understand that being a parent involves actually raising your child? Maybe they should try interacting with their children, rather than plopping them in front of the TV and hope they'll turn out somewhat normal.

The CMPC also wants to add another category to the V-Chip, "E/I," or "educational/informational" programming as it's called. "Allowing parents to use the V-Chip to affirmatively select good programming for their children," the group argues, "rather than just to block objectionable programming, would increase the V-Chip’s effectiveness as a parental control mechanism."

So... HBO's real sex series and similar is educational and informative I suppose? Awesome idea for a broadcast flag... a whitelist for something as vague and nebulous as educational and informative content.

I see the advertisers getting up in arms about this. They were already pretty pissed when folks were using Tivos to bypass commercials. Now reform groups want commercials rated so the V-chip could bypass them. It'll be a battle royale for the lobbyists.

Originally posted by veddermatic:I just want commercials rated like shows... show them whenever, but have the V-Chip block them. Nothing like watching a baseball game with my daughter and having a commercial for the movie "Drag Me To Hell" scare the crap out of her.

+++++Those of you going on about how responsible parenting obviates the need for rating commercials must have different listings than I do. All I see is "baseball game", I don't get to see the "drag me to hell" ad or the never-ending stream of aphrodesiac ads mentioned as part of "baseball game".

They should do one of the following:1) Require all ads to be the same or less restrictive rating than the main program2) At the very least, rate the commercials as well and allow blocking

(1) is the most sensible, but of course the networks will fight it tooth and nail because it might cost them ad revenue. So we're stuck with advocating for (2), that at least allows a technical solution for those who can figure out to use it.

quote:

Making it illegal to boost the volume on commercials would be fine by me too

that at least allows a technical solution for those who can figure out to use it.

This is a good point. A lot of people do not know how to use a v-chip or are even aware their TV has one. I remember seeing a few commercials for them a while back but I've always wondered why they can't make the v-chip setup part of an Out of Box Experience when the TV is started up for the first time. Even the least savvy of users can set up a PC as long as they are guided through the choices, the same could be true for TVs.

The trouble with "boosting the volume" is that a lot of "loud" ads are just normalized to the maximum level. IOW, your actual show might get that loud momentarily, but the ad holds the same volume for a long time. So, you can't just regulate volume, you have to regulate dynamics and normalization, which is much harder.

Originally posted by severusx:One of the upsides I see to rating commercials is that, if you can choose their rating level separately, you can effectively put an ad blocker on your TV. I DVR 95% of all the TV I watch just to avoid the ads, it would be nice to watch a game or the Discovery channel without getting my eardrums popped by a 130db ad.

Fuckin' A. Thanks so much! +1 to this.

Why must the commercials be so much louder? Honestly?! If something like this passes, I will gladly use the ability to block as many commercials as I can.

As it stands I have no clue why we have to watch commercials on CABLE TV THAT WE ALL READY PAY FOR!

Originally posted by severusx:I remember seeing a few commercials for them a while back but I've always wondered why they can't make the v-chip setup part of an Out of Box Experience when the TV is started up for the first time. Even the least savvy of users can set up a PC as long as they are guided through the choices, the same could be true for TVs.

My TV (37" Sharp AQUOS) came like this. I bought it in 2007, so I'm not sure if it's a "Sharp-thing" or a "post-2006 thing" but I was given the option during the initial setup (which, being DINKs, my wife and I opted out of).

Originally posted by bfstev:And the banning of cialis or viagra commercials during the day WHEN THE KIDS ARE IN SCHOOL ANYWAY is just stupid.

Apparently you don't live anywhere with a summer break for the kids...

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Originally posted by Kloro:How many parents actually set up their televisions to block content. Hell, most parents in the US seem to have no idea what V-chip is anyway. And no, I'm not talking about the typical Arsian, but Joe Six-pack.

I don't use the V-Chip in my kids TVs, I use the very good parental controls that are in my D*TV boxes. Much greater flexibility and I have the option o completely remove channels from the list so they don't even know they are there (i.e. - SPICE: i don't want to explain what "Your mother is a gangbang ho" means even if they can't turn it on).

quote:

Originally posted by Shudder:I just want it to be illegal for commercials to be at a higher volume than the damn show you're watching.

I'm willing to bet most parents don't even program their TV's V-chip or even know what it is. I also bet those same parents complain all the time about needing parental controls on the TV. Seeing as parents probably don't even know the V-chip exists increasing the complexity of said technology would not help their cause.

As for making it an out-of-box setup thing. Most people don't want to setup their TV, they just want it to work. That is if they don't have a tech come out to set it up for them, and he'll probably just skip over parental controls.

As for commercials not having ratings, it's a valid point. I'd say either rate all commercials and when a non-allowed commercial pops up on an allowed program the screen goes black and says something about restricted content. Or the easy method is that providers are only allowed to air commercials of the same rating or low than whatever is airing at the time. Either way, DVR kills ads dead.

Originally posted by Wind197:As for making it an out-of-box setup thing. Most people don't want to setup their TV, they just want it to work. That is if they don't have a tech come out to set it up for them, and he'll probably just skip over parental controls.

Yeah commercial ratings would be awesome just for the ability to block all ads. Doing so would be far more beneficial "for the children" than only blocking some of them anyway. Too bad commercial interests would ensure it never happens.

Paradoxically, I object to V-chip ratings in general, however IF we are going to have them I do think they need to be much more granular than generic age ratings.

Personally I would ban all violence from my (non-existent) kids TV long before I ban sexual content or "adult" dialog. Then I'd go about banning ALL medical advertising.

I however have a much more subversive idea pertaining to commercials. Tag all commercials with a unique identifier and then allow viewers to interactively refuse to view them again with the press of a button on their remote.

Did anyone follow that link???? You would think that the PARENTS TELEVISION COUNCIL would NOT want to tell the whole world what all the foul language was, much less all the stuff in the first column, damn.

quote:

And the banning of cialis or viagra commercials during the day WHEN THE KIDS ARE IN SCHOOL ANYWAY is just stupid.

True, but I don't want to see those commercials while I'm watching Fringe!

Matthew Lasar / Matt writes for Ars Technica about media/technology history, intellectual property, the FCC, or the Internet in general. He teaches United States history and politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz.